quote:They did not allow it to be published because to do so would have caused mass hysteria.

The only thing that seems to cause mass hysteria in the US is football players not standing for the national anthem. Important life changing things like banks and other financial institutions being able to wipe out your life savings or steal your identity without fear of being held accountable get passed through congress unnoticed. Americans get so distracted by a shiny object that nothing truly important would cause mass hysteria.

quote:They did not allow it to be published because to do so would have caused mass hysteria.

The only thing that seems to cause mass hysteria in the US is football players not standing for the national anthem. Important life changing things like banks and other financial institutions being able to wipe out your life savings or steal your identity without fear of being held accountable get passed through congress unnoticed. Americans get so distracted by a shiny object that nothing truly important would cause mass hysteria.

quote:They did not allow it to be published because to do so would have caused mass hysteria.

The only thing that seems to cause mass hysteria in the US is football players not standing for the national anthem. Important life changing things like banks and other financial institutions being able to wipe out your life savings or steal your identity without fear of being held accountable get passed through congress unnoticed. Americans get so distracted by a shiny object that nothing truly important would cause mass hysteria.

They are being programmed not to care unless it directly effects them. They prefer to feel safe and enjoy their creature comforts remaining unknowing about what is going on. The media brainwashes them and hey believe what they are told rather than looking at other sources within the media who actually investigate and report the truth.

____________________"Mankind is a single nation" "Allah did not make you a single people so he could try you in what he gave you, to him you will all return, he will inform you where you differed". Quran Chapter 2 Sura 213

quote:They did not allow it to be published because to do so would have caused mass hysteria.

The only thing that seems to cause mass hysteria in the US is football players not standing for the national anthem. Important life changing things like banks and other financial institutions being able to wipe out your life savings or steal your identity without fear of being held accountable get passed through congress unnoticed. Americans get so distracted by a shiny object that nothing truly important would cause mass hysteria.

They are being programmed not to care unless it directly effects them. They prefer to feel safe and enjoy their creature comforts remaining unknowing about what is going on. The media brainwashes them and hey believe what they are told rather than looking at other sources within the media who actually investigate and report the truth.

You have a really low opinion of your fellow citizens. That is pathetic coming from someone who buys into every conspiracy theory and is always proven wrong.

“&#8203;I really believe that it makes sense for North Korea to come to the table and to make a deal that’s good for the people of North Korea and the people of the world&#8203;,” the president said in a speech in Seoul, South Korea, where he’s on the second leg of a trip to five Asian nations.

“I think we’re making a lot of progress. I think we’re showing great strength. I think they understand we have unparalleled strength. There has never been strength like it,” he said during a joint news conference with South Korea’s President Moon Jae In.

“We call on every responsible nation, including China and Russia, to demand that the North Korean regime end its nuclear weapons and its missile programs, and live in peace. As the South Korean people know so well, it’s time to act with urgency and with great determination,” he said in Seoul, which is less than 40 miles from the demilitarized zone marking the border between the two countries.

Remarks: He says "live in peace", good idea!

____________________"Mankind is a single nation" "Allah did not make you a single people so he could try you in what he gave you, to him you will all return, he will inform you where you differed". Quran Chapter 2 Sura 213

____________________"Mankind is a single nation" "Allah did not make you a single people so he could try you in what he gave you, to him you will all return, he will inform you where you differed". Quran Chapter 2 Sura 213

Kim Jung Un apparently has threatened to DETONATE a nuke over the Pacific Ocean to damage the atmosphere, and the fallout will also contaminate any fish in the ocean as well as circle around the globe and hurt people and other things.

Other things like the effect of an EMP - take down the power grid. If he takes down our grid, how the eff can we launch anything back at him and carry out a war?

The question is how far do we let him go, before we have to respond with assured destruction of his country?

____________________"Mankind is a single nation" "Allah did not make you a single people so he could try you in what he gave you, to him you will all return, he will inform you where you differed". Quran Chapter 2 Sura 213

quote:They did not allow it to be published because to do so would have caused mass hysteria.

The only thing that seems to cause mass hysteria in the US is football players not standing for the national anthem. Important life changing things like banks and other financial institutions being able to wipe out your life savings or steal your identity without fear of being held accountable get passed through congress unnoticed. Americans get so distracted by a shiny object that nothing truly important would cause mass hysteria.

So true....Trump's constant distractions from the screw job con he's playing on the very people who voted for him is truly depressing. Sadly, many of the Trump supporters I know still seem oblivious to the giant penis in their rectum and think he actually gives a sh*t about the middle class.

quote:They did not allow it to be published because to do so would have caused mass hysteria.

The only thing that seems to cause mass hysteria in the US is football players not standing for the national anthem. Important life changing things like banks and other financial institutions being able to wipe out your life savings or steal your identity without fear of being held accountable get passed through congress unnoticed. Americans get so distracted by a shiny object that nothing truly important would cause mass hysteria.

So true....Trump's constant distractions from the screw job con he's playing on the very people who voted for him is truly depressing. Sadly, many of the Trump supporters I know still seem oblivious to the giant penis in their rectum and think he actually gives a sh*t about the middle class.

What exactly does your liberal loser hate post have to do with North Korea?

President Trump is standing tall and strong against the North Korean dictator and Little Kim is quite well aware of what will happen to him should he make a bad decision.
President Trump is also the first U.S. President to get China to active engage.

While the left-wing keeps up their failed "negotiate" rant President Trump is taking the only action that will deter the North Korean dictator.

quote:They did not allow it to be published because to do so would have caused mass hysteria.

The only thing that seems to cause mass hysteria in the US is football players not standing for the national anthem. Important life changing things like banks and other financial institutions being able to wipe out your life savings or steal your identity without fear of being held accountable get passed through congress unnoticed. Americans get so distracted by a shiny object that nothing truly important would cause mass hysteria.

So true....Trump's constant distractions from the screw job con he's playing on the very people who voted for him is truly depressing. Sadly, many of the Trump supporters I know still seem oblivious to the giant penis in their rectum and think he actually gives a sh*t about the middle class.

What exactly does your liberal loser hate post have to do with North Korea?

President Trump is standing tall and strong against the North Korean dictator and Little Kim is quite well aware of what will happen to him should he make a bad decision.
President Trump is also the first U.S. President to get China to active engage.

While the left-wing keeps up their failed "negotiate" rant President Trump is taking the only action that will deter the North Korean dictator.

REMARKS: It is wintertime. What effect will stopping 90 per cent of oil imports have on the country? Where will they get fuel for heating the homes of the people? Taking actions that causes people to freeze to death in winter, and for trucks to not be able to drive to get food to markets etc. seems like a cruelty to the people. I remember Osama still complaining in 2002 about how US sanctions resulted in the deaths of millions of Lebanese children in the 1980's.

What actions can North Korea initiate in response? Do you understand the words bang zoom?

____________________"Mankind is a single nation" "Allah did not make you a single people so he could try you in what he gave you, to him you will all return, he will inform you where you differed". Quran Chapter 2 Sura 213

That is the thing with sanctions, the leaders of the country are never hurt by them directly, it is always the general population that suffers. So what else to do? Not offer any form of globally sanctioned punishment? Give in to their bribes and threats? Go to war? A whole bunch of bad options.

The oil ship that South Korea stopped, was sent to North Korea from China. Do we now sanction China for sending North Korea an oil shipment?

These sanctions are just cruel and inhumane to the people. They are the ones who will freeze. If the US wants to punish North Korea, the US by itself should just not do trade deals with North Korea. We need to leave the rest of the world out of it, and nobody should force common peoples of another country to freeze or starve to death. That in and of itself is a human rights violation, isn't it?

What to do? Sit down and have a Skype session with Kim Jung Un, lay it out plainly, 'if you launch a missile and hit us or any of our allies, we will respond and blow you to hell. Any questions?'

Real simple, straight to the point. If they want to play and tease sending things into various bodies of water, fine, but make it clear, hit one piece of land and it is over.

____________________"Mankind is a single nation" "Allah did not make you a single people so he could try you in what he gave you, to him you will all return, he will inform you where you differed". Quran Chapter 2 Sura 213

____________________"Mankind is a single nation" "Allah did not make you a single people so he could try you in what he gave you, to him you will all return, he will inform you where you differed". Quran Chapter 2 Sura 213

I'm fearful of what a strike against North Korea could mean. Also not a fan of this kind of reporting being out in the public where NK gets a look inside the inner thinking. Just wish there was a way to get that Kim Jong Un out of there. Doubt we'd be so lucky on such a preemptive strike. Anyway, here is the latest:

Washington (CNN)The tabled nomination of a widely-respected diplomat is bringing renewed focus to divisions inside the Trump administration over how tough the US should be in positioning against North Korea with nuclear tests expected to resume after the upcoming Olympics.

The nomination of the long-rumored candidate to be US ambassador to South Korea, Victor Cha, was pulled last weekend after he warned the White House that a so-called "bloody nose" strike against Pyongyang would risk pulling the US into a disastrous war that would endanger hundreds of thousands of lives.

That's largely in line with the caution that's being urged by Defense Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

But others in the administration, including President Donald Trump's national security adviser H.R. McMaster, have insisted that a military strike be considered as a serious option as a way to exact maximum pressure on Pyongyang.

And it's that tension that was on display when Cha's nomination was pulled.

"It seems that there are divisions within the administration," Bruce Klingner, a former CIA officer and a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told CNN's Brooke Baldwin Wednesday.

"As the SecDef has stated there are a wide range of military options available to the President but it is important to note that this is still a diplomatically led effort," Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Chris Logan told CNN. "As far as specifics go we will not discuss operational details or potential military options."

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said, "Our policy is maximum pressure with the goal of bringing North Korea to the negotiating table, as POTUS said in the State of the Union. We have been clear that it is our intention to resolve this issue peacefully through dialogue. We have also been clear that denuclearization is the only acceptable outcome, that the entire international community is united on this point, and that it will be achieved, one way or another."

The National Security Council did not respond to CNN's request for comment.

Months after the administration began the proceedings leading up to a nomination, Cha was asked by NSC officials whether he felt prepared to manage diplomatic efforts that would surround such a strike, including the potential evacuation of American civilians from Seoul, a source familiar with the dynamic told CNN.

Cha expressed concerns about such a strike, which he laid out in a Washington Post op-ed on Tuesday.
Under that strategy, the aim is for the US to initiate a military strike significant enough to force North Korea to question its nuclear ambitions but limited in scale as to avoid retaliation.

After the exchange with Cha, the White House went mostly silent, even as the South Koreans were in the process of approving his nomination in the process known as agrément.

Ultimately, some White House officials feared that nominating someone opposed to such a strike could undermine that military option in the eyes of members of Congress and administration officials, according to the source familiar with the debate.

They feared Cha would become a pawn in the intra-administration debate over the "bloody nose" strike, both during his confirmation hearings and when installed at the embassy in Seoul, the source said.
A senior State Department official said, "Dr. Cha's policy views have never been a factor in this process."
McMaster has emerged as a leading administration voice in preparing for such action and has been backed up by the NSC's top Asia official, Matt Pottinger, according to the source.

Another source acknowledged an internal discrepancy on the "bloody nose strategy" between the hawkish NSC and several top administration officials -- including Mattis and Tillerson -- who have advocated a more cautious approach.

But the continued push to legitimize a limited preemptive strike option is raising questions, even outside the administration.

"The idea of a 'bloody nose' strike against North Korea makes little sense because it has the potential for escalating response and strategic miscalculation, while gaining little concrete advantage," said Jamil N. Jaffer, founder of GMU's National Security Institute and former Chief Counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"A more sensible approach to further North Korean aggression would be a significant change to our military posture in the region," said Jaffer, who also served in the Bush White House and is currently a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution.

North Korea analyst Gordon Chang says the decision to pull Cha is "ominous."

"It means that people are seriously considering a strike on North Korea," Chang said. "This is an indication that we are headed to war. And there are so many - there are so many other options that the United States can pursue and we are not having meaningful discussions, including sanctions on North Korea's backers and more sanctions in general."

In discussions about any military option, including a "limited strike," Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford would present Trump with all options and risks, including the worst case scenario on casualties.

Their outline would include the risks involved with hitting the target, missing the target, Kim Jong Un's reaction, the prospect of not getting South Korean support for a strike, and the risk of financial and economic fallout across Asia and beyond.

They would engage the President in a discussion of the strategy of a strike and the end game: What does the US actually hope to achieve with a military strike on North Korea and what is the risk if they try a strike and fail.

Trump used his first State of the Union address on Tuesday to slam the "depraved character of the North Korean regime" in an effort to rally the nation around a common threat, but new indications that his top national security advisers disagree over the best path forward have raised concerns that the President is actively considering a limited first strike option to send a message to Pyongyang.

While often eager to confront North Korean leader Kim Jong Un both verbally and via Twitter, his threats of "fire and fury" have largely been tempered by assurances from top advisers -- like Mattis and Tillerson -- who insist the US remains committed to prioritizing a peaceful resolution to tensions with Pyongyang.
Most of Trump's top national security advisers have said that military options should be reserved pending an imminent threat to the US or allies, but McMaster has repeatedly suggested otherwise -- even hinting that war is a real possibility and one that could come soon.

The US would likely win a military conflict with North Korea should tensions devolve into war, but would face a very difficult fight that would likely yield significant casualties on both sides, according to Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Robert Neller.

War with North Korea "will be a very, very kinetic, physical, violent fight over some really, really tough ground and everybody is going to have to be mentally prepared," he recently said.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo has warned "North Korea is ever closer to being able to hold America at risk."
Pompeo said it could be just a " handful of months" before North Korea might be able to demonstrate the capability to put a warhead on a missile that could reach the US.

"Their testing capacity has improved and the frequency with which they have tests which are materially successful has also improved."

Victor Cha is a professor at Georgetown University and senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

North Korea, if not stopped, will build an arsenal with multiple nuclear missiles meant to threaten the U.S. homeland and blackmail us into abandoning our allies in Asia. North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un will sell these weapons to state and nonstate actors, and he will inspire other rogue actors who want to undermine the U.S.-backed postwar order. These are real and unprecedented threats. But the answer is not, as some Trump administration officials have suggested, a preventive military strike. Instead, there is a forceful military option available that can address the threat without escalating into a war that would likely kill tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Americans.

When I was under consideration for a position in this administration, I shared some of these views.

Some may argue that U.S. casualties and even a wider war on the Korean Peninsula are risks worth taking, given what is at stake. But a strike (even a large one) would only delay North Korea’s missile-building and nuclear programs, which are buried in deep, unknown places impenetrable to bunker-busting bombs. A strike also would not stem the threat of proliferation but rather exacerbate it, turning what might be a North Korean moneymaking endeavor into a vengeful effort intended to equip other bad actors against us.

I empathize with the hope, espoused by some Trump officials, that a military strike would shock Pyongyang into appreciating U.S. strength, after years of inaction, and force the regime to the denuclearization negotiating table. I also hope that if North Korea did retaliate militarily, the United States could control the escalation ladder to minimize collateral damage and prevent a collapse of financial markets. In either event, the rationale is that a strike that demonstrates U.S. resolve to pursue “all options” is necessary to give the mercurial Kim a “bloody nose.” Otherwise he will remain undeterred in his nuclear ambitions.

Yet, there is a point at which hope must give in to logic. If we believe that Kim is undeterrable without such a strike, how can we also believe that a strike will deter him from responding in kind? And if Kim is unpredictable, impulsive and bordering on irrational, how can we control the escalation ladder, which is premised on an adversary’s rational understanding of signals and deterrence?

Some have argued the risks are still worth taking because it’s better that people die “over there” than “over here.” On any given day, there are 230,000 Americans in South Korea and 90,000 or so in Japan. Given that an evacuation of so many citizens would be virtually impossible under a rain of North Korean artillery and missiles (potentially laced with biochemical weapons), these Americans would most likely have to hunker down until the war was over.

While our population in Japan might be protected by U.S. missile defenses, the U.S. population in South Korea, let alone millions of South Koreans, has no similar active defenses against a barrage of North Korean artillery (aside from counterfire artillery). To be clear: The president would be putting at risk an American population the size of a medium-size U.S. city — Pittsburgh, say, or Cincinnati — on the assumption that a crazy and undeterrable dictator will be rationally cowed by a demonstration of U.S. kinetic power.

An alternative coercive strategy involves enhanced and sustained U.S., regional and global pressure on Pyongyang to denuclearize. This strategy is likely to deliver the same potential benefits as a limited strike, along with other advantages, without the self-destructive costs. There are four elements to this coercive strategy.

First, the Trump administration must continue to strengthen the coalition of U.N. member states it has mustered in its thus far highly successful sanctions campaign.

Second, the United States must significantly up-gun its alliances with Japan and South Korea with integrated missile defense, intelligence-sharing and anti-submarine warfare and strike capabilities to convey to North Korea that an attack on one is an attack on all.

Third, the United States must build a maritime coalition around North Korea involving rings of South Korean, Japanese and broader U.S. assets to intercept any nuclear missiles or technologies leaving the country. China and Russia should be prepared to face the consequences if they allow North Korean proliferation across their borders.

Lastly, the United States must continue to prepare military options. Force will be necessary to deal with North Korea if it attacks first, but not through a preventive strike that could start a nuclear war.

In the land of lousy options, no strategy is perfect, but some are better than others. This strategy gets us out of crisis-management mode. It constitutes decisive action, not previously attempted, by President Trump. And it demonstrates resolve to other bad actors that threats to the United States will be countered. Such a strategy would assuredly deplete Pyongyang’s hard currency, deter it from rash action, strengthen our alliances in Asia for the next generation and increase the costs to those who continue to subsidize Pyongyang.

A sustained and long-term competitive strategy such as this plays to U.S. strengths, exploits our adversary’s weaknesses and does not risk hundreds of thousands of American lives.

Given the recent warnings Hawaii has endured, and there is some discrepancies where some say that missiles were sent there from North Korea and intercepted and blown up before hitting Oahu, things may happen quickly.

Does the military have a responsibility to report intercepted and blocked attacks to the public?

Would there disclosing it negatively impact any response they plan in the future?

____________________"Mankind is a single nation" "Allah did not make you a single people so he could try you in what he gave you, to him you will all return, he will inform you where you differed". Quran Chapter 2 Sura 213

I'm not a big fan of John Bolton, but he put it rather simply, paraphrasing "the US is going to have to decide if we can live with a nuclear North Korea, or we are going to have to forcefully stop it" - it's getting to the point that those are the only two choices. And two very terrible choices those are. A nuclear NK isn't just like a nuclear India or China or some semi-reasonable country. The fact that they would likely sell technology and material to anyone and everyone who wants it is really the bigger concern then them actually launching a missile at the US or one of our allies even though CIA says NK was only "a handful of months away from being able to hit the US mainland with a nuke".

What an epic failure of our leaders in Washington to have let this problem fester. The advancement in NK's recent development has been rather quick, quicker than intelligence agencies predicted. What a mess. So here we are essentially out of time for anything else other than accept it or war - choices nobody wants to accept.

WASHINGTON/SEOUL (Reuters) - The United States said on Friday it was imposing its largest package of sanctions to pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear and missile programs, and President Donald Trump warned of a “phase two” that could be “very, very unfortunate for the world” if the steps did not work.

In addressing the Trump administration’s biggest national security challenge, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned one person, 27 companies and 28 ships, according to a statement on the U.S. Treasury Department’s website.

The United States also proposed a list of entities to be blacklisted under separate U.N. sanctions, a move “aimed at shutting down North Korea’s illicit maritime smuggling activities to obtain oil and sell coal.”

North Korea has been developing nuclear-tipped missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland and Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have exchanged taunts that have raised fears of war.

In August, Trump threatened to go beyond sanctions by bringing “fire and fury like the world has never seen,” although his administration has repeatedly said it prefers a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

Speaking at a news conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Trump made apparent reference to military options his administration has repeatedly said remain on the table.

“If the sanctions don’t work, we’ll have to go phase two,” Trump said. “Phase two may be a very rough thing, may be very, very unfortunate for the world. But hopefully the sanctions will work.”

The sanctions’ targets include a Taiwan passport holder, as well as shipping and energy firms in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. The actions block assets held by the firms and individuals in the United States and prohibit U.S. citizens from dealing with them.

The U.S. Treasury said the sanctions were designed to disrupt North Korean shipping and trading companies and vessels and further isolate Pyongyang. They are also aimed at ships located, registered or flagged in North Korea, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Marshall Islands, Tanzania, Panama and the Comoros.

Last month, three Western European intelligence sources told Reuters that North Korea shipped coal to Russia last year and that it was then delivered to South Korea and Japan in a likely violation of U.N. sanctions.

FRUSTRATED TRUMP

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the new sanctions would help prevent North Korea from skirting restrictions on trade in coal and other fuel through “evasive maritime activities.”

“The president is clearly frustrated and rightly so over the efforts that have failed in the past and also over the uptick in testing and the advances we’ve seen in the North Korean program,” a senior administration official told reporters.

At another briefing, Mnuchin stood next to enlarged photos he said showed December 2017 images that revealed ship-to-ship transfers of fuel and other products destined for North Korea in an attempt to evade sanctions.

He said he could not rule out the prospect of the United States boarding and inspecting North Korean ships.

Mnuchin said virtually all shipping currently being used by North Korea was now under sanction and the U.S. government had “issued an advisory alerting the public to the significant sanctions risks to those continuing to enable shipments of goods to and from North Korea.”

Mnuchin said the number of sanctions steps taken by the United States against Pyongyang since 2005 was now 450 with approximately half imposed in the last year.

Christopher Ford, assistant secretary of state for international security and non-proliferation, told reporters sanctions already had affected North Korea’s weapons programs and this was shown by the lengths North Korea was going to try to evade sanctions.

Jonathan Schanzer of the Washington think tank Foundation for the Defense of Democracies said Friday’s move was “the largest tranche of DPRK (North Korea) sanctions” released by the Treasury Department.

“The only thing missing here today is action against Chinese banks,” he said. “We know they continue to undermine our efforts to isolate North Korea.”

Tougher sanctions may jeopardize the latest detente between the two Koreas, illustrated by the North’s participation in the Winter Olympics in the South, amid preparations for talks about a possible summit between North Korea’s Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

Nevertheless, South Korea welcomed the U.S. sanctions saying they would “alert those who are illegally trading with North Korea and therefore bolster the international community to carry out resolutions from the U.N. Security Council”.

Japan also supported the new sanctions, Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera said, according to the Kyodo news agency.

Taiwan said it was in touch with the United States and would investigate its citizens and entities suspected of helping North Korea. It also called on Taiwan firms and citizens not to break U.N. sanctions.

Reuters was unable to locate contact details for the Chinese companies listed in the new U.S. sanctions.

In a commentary carried by Korean Central News Agency on Saturday, North Korea said it never intended to aim its nuclear weapons at South Korea, adding the weapons will only be aimed at the United States.

‘WARM CLIMATE’

North Korea last year conducted dozens of missile launches and its sixth and largest nuclear test in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. It defends the weapons programs as essential to deter U.S. aggression. It has been more than two months since North Korea’s last missile test.

Kim said he wants to boost the “warm climate of reconciliation and dialogue” with South Korea, which hosts 28,500 U.S. troops, after a high-level delegation, including his sister, returned from the Olympics.

In an extension of that rapprochement, the North agreed on Friday to hold working-level talks on Tuesday for the Pyeongchang Winter Paralympics on the North’s side of the border village of Panmunjom.

In December, the United Nations approved a U.S.-drafted measure limiting North Korea’s access to refined petroleum products and crude oil, which North Korea said amounted to an act of war.

In January, Washington announced a round of sanctions and urged China and Russia to expel North Koreans raising funds for the programs.

The U.N. Security Council banned North Korean exports of coal on Aug. 5 under sanctions intended to cut off an important source of the foreign currency Pyongyang needs to fund its weapons programs.

The new U.S. sanctions were announced while Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, is visiting South Korea. At a dinner with Moon at Seoul’s presidential Blue House, Ivanka Trump said the United States wanted to “reaffirm our commitment to our maximum pressure campaign to ensure that the Korean Peninsula is denuclearized.”

Moon said North Korea’s participation in the Olympics had “led to lowering of tensions on the peninsula and an improvement in inter-Korean relations” and were thanks to President Trump’s “strong support for inter-Korean dialogue.”

Ivanka Trump’s visit to South Korea coincides with that of a sanctioned North Korean official, Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Committee blamed for the 2010 sinking of a South Korean navy ship that killed 46 sailors. His delegation will attend the closing ceremony and also meet Moon.

The Blue House has said there are no official opportunities for U.S. and North Korean officials to meet.

quote:South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in a statement on Sunday that he'd met with the North Korean delegation in Pyeongchang before the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games, and told them that North Korea-US talks should happen "as soon as possible."

Moon said the North Koreans indicated they were willing to talk with the US, and agreed that "the inter-Korean relationship and North Korea-US relationship should develop together."

Pretty stunning developments the last several weeks, the latest with Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong Un's meeting.

If North Korea is sincere, a big if, but the extent of their actions and words definitely feels different this time, I wonder what their angle is? Perhaps they think they can create an economy like China did.

I think there are 3 possible reasons for the change in North Korea's tune.

1 - China for the first time has tightened the screws and is enforcing the UN embargo. Without the food and energy they previously received from China, they simply can't function as a country anymore.

2 - North Korea has always played the crazy card. The unpredictable country with nukes. It is possible that they now view Trump as the unpredictable crazy leader with nukes. It's hard to play chess with somebody when what they do may make no sense whatsoever.

3 - They may have hit a wall. They may not have any further uranium to spare for further testing, and maybe they can't expect further positive developments with their missile program. Fear depends on your foe believing you can deliver a nuclear weapon to their shores. The Hawaii false warning proved their point and maybe they don't see further testing as necessary. The longer you go without testing the less fear they can generate. Maybe they think this is the optimal time to play their cards.

Anyway, I hope this all works out. The tone does seem different this time.

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